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Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Hush-hush, keep it down-down, voices carry

Always gotta love a good "moral family values" Republican story:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Sept. 9) - A Republican state lawmaker from Southern California resigned Wednesday amid growing outrage over a videotape that caught him bragging in graphic detail about having sex with a female lobbyist and another woman.Assemblyman Mike Duvall, whose votes on family-oriented legislation received high marks from conservative groups, said in a statement the furor over his comments had begun to divert attention from the work his fellow lawmakers were trying to finish during the final week of their session.Duvall is married and has two adult children.In a recording of a legislative hearing, Duvall can be heard talking about a recent sexual escapade with a woman he says is 18 years younger."I'm getting into spanking her," Duvall is heard to say on the videotape.The other man asks if she likes it, too. Duvall responds: "She goes, 'I know you like spanking me.' I said, 'Yeah, that's 'cause you're such a bad girl.'"The 54-year-old lawmaker made the comments about the affairs to another lawmaker during a break in a committee meeting at the Capitol over the summer, and they were caught on a microphone at his desk.The lawmaker then brags about an affair he is having with another woman."Oh, she is hot! I talked to her yesterday. She goes, 'So are we finished?' I go, 'No, we're not finished.' I go, 'You know about the other one, but she doesn't know about you!'" Duvall can be heard saying in an apparent reference to his affair with the lobbyist.Duvall received a 100 percent rating from Capitol Resource Institute, a conservative advocacy group, for his votes on legislation considered pro-family during the 2007-08 legislative session. The institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Duvall's Assembly office was locked Wednesday afternoon.Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, asked the Assembly Ethics committee to investigate. She also removed Duvall from the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, which considers utility regulations, and the Assembly Rules Committee.Duvall was elected in 2006 to represent an Orange County district that includes Fullerton, Anaheim, Placentia, Orange, Brea and Yorba Linda. Before that, he served six years on the Yorba Linda City Council. He also owns an insurance agency.The lawmaker was vice chairman of the utilities committee, which had been considering one of the more hotly contested bills in the current legislative session. The bill, which is still being debated, would require utilities to generate 33 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.Many utilities oppose it.On July 6, Duvall was one of five Republicans to vote against the legislation, which is sponsored by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto.

It should be pointed out that the lobbyist involved has been reported to be a woman named Heidi Dejong Barsuglia (also married), who works for Sempra Energy, one of the utilities opposed to the legislation. Ironically, on her California access lobbyist web page it says she passed an Ethics Course in 2008.